Heitinga facing Dutch axe

Voetbal International are apparently reporting that should Bert van Marwijk keep his job as national coach of the Netherlands [27/6/12 Update: he didn't] through to the 2016 European Championships, John Heitinga will be one of three players who will not be considered for international duty.

The report suggests that the Everton defender, Tottenham's Rafael van der Vaart, and striker Klass-Jan Hunterlaar will be axed by Van Marwijk as part of a post-Euro2012 shake-up.

Heitinga was dropped for the Oranjie's final Group B match against Portugal but Van der Vaart was reinstated for that game and scored the opening goal upon which the Dutch were not able to build and they lost the game 2-1.

The Netherlands lost all three of their group games, their worst performance at a major tournament thus far.

Mark, Gavin. Surely this must be a disciplinary measure rather than a decision based on footballing ability. You don't announce players won't be considered for selection unless you are effectively saying that the manager is refusing to work with them.

Doesn't bother me if Johnny plays for the Oranje or not, as long as he plays well for us.

Si, Hunterlaar looked quite rightly pissed off spending the majority of the tournament catching splinters in his arse as did Van der Vaart and equally both proved far more useful to the Ducth being on the pitch instead of as spectators. If its a disciplinary it smacks of another manager cutting his nose off to spite his own face. He saw his arse playing the wrong players in their games.

Gavin, not disagreeing with your assessment of the Dutch performances but the article says that if van Marwijk keeps his job then these three players won't be considered for international duty in the future (whether that is limited to his tenure or not is not made clear). Unless the inference is that he doesn't rate them as good enough, then it has to be a disciplinary stance based on the widely reported dissent that affected the Dutch cup campaign (nothing new there then). Van Marwijk must have the backing of the Dutch footballing authorities if this is to be applied and so it must be an official disciplinary sanction (otherwise it is tantamount to restriction of trade or slander / libel at the least).

Feel like I haven't made myself clear. To me the words "will not be considered for international duty" are not the same as saying someone has been dropped indefinitely due to an unsatisfactory level of performance and, if that was the original meaning of the report, then I think that the wording used is a little misleading. To be able to announce the voluntary exclusion of these players for the duration of his stewardship, the manager must be pretty sure he has the backing of his superiors in what is in effect, if not in actuality, a punitive measure.

The problem with the Dutch is that they always seem to beat themselves from within. They appear to have far too many ego maniacs in the camp and their in-house fighting carries over to match day. They constantly bicker, badger and berate each other and or the current serving manager - this has been going on for ages. The talent has always been there and on paper they are usually a scary opponent for anyone. However, you can usually bet that somewhere down the road in any tournament, they will falter and succumb to no one but themselves.

In a better world the person who has the guts to stand-up for what is needed would always get the support, but in the real world the establishment tend to protect their own interests and will reaffirm their authority by getting rid of the 'troublemakers'.

Don't know if that applies in this case as I am not sure of the details of the strife in the Dutch camp at the Euros. The flipside is that there are genuine troublemakers; people who will gladly ruin it for everyone if they are not pandered to. Need a Dutch expert to unravel this one I think.

As for the article, if van Marwijk is kept on then they are clearly blaming these players for the failure of the team and, by announcing that these players will not be considered for selection, they are letting everyone know that this trio is being punished.

"there are genuine troublemakers; people who will gladly ruin it for everyone if they are not pandered to" -

No doubt. But how long has Johnny been with us? How often has he been played out of position? How long would he have lasted had he pissed Moyes off? How often has he stated that he enjoys his football with us as well as he ever has?

I've witnessed management failures blaming the troops close up, and this has all the hallmarks to me. In any case, Johnny come home.

The Dutch are a bigger joke than England! They have twice the talent yet cannot kill the infighting. That has to come from the top down. Van Bommel was shite as he usually is. One of the most dirty and cynical players I have ever seen. Zero ability. Yet guaranteed to start which is bound to piss others off.

Agree with Keith. All Johnny's done for us is improve his play year by year. Watched all the Holland games and wondered how many times Johnny thought, "Christ, let me get back to my Club, a real Team".